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The theatre director and producer sits down with Hadley Stewart to talk about his journey from alcohol and drug addiction, to sobriety and founding his LGBTQ-focused theatre company.
Just over a year ago, Andrew Keates says his life had become unmanageable. The theatre director and producer had woken up in a shed at the bottom of a garden. He’d been brutally sexually assaulted by two men. His body, as he describes it, was full of alcohol and drugs. “I was covered in bruises and cuts and burns,” he tells me of what he saw when he woke up. “In fact, there are scars on my back that I’ll have for the rest of my life from that night.”
Talking to me now over video call from his home in London, Keates says things are unrecognisable compared to how they were twelve months ago. We’re speaking just days after he has announced the launch of his new theatre company, Queer Theatre, but the story behind the scenes that motivated him to set up a queer-focused theatre company is a difficult one to tell. It’s a story of self-destruction and recovery, and most importantly, it’s one of hope.
Keates is an established, multi-award winning theatre director and producer. Perhaps to the outside world he had the work hard, play hard routine down to a tee. “I thought my identity was to be somebody that had to be successful in the West End and who needed to sleep with loads of men, take all the best drugs, and go to all the best parties,” says Keates.
Yet on the inside, Keates describes that he was struggling with a life of shame and trauma. “My ego had run rampant,” he says of that time. He began using drugs and alcohol to soothe the hole in his soul, as he puts it. “And actually drugs, sex and alcohol probably saved my life for many, many years, until they stopped working. Until I realised that actually my ego will never say: I think you’ve had enough.”
Similarly to many queer people who grew up under Section 28, Keates found himself being subjected to homophobic bullying at school, but wasn’t able to talk about it with anyone. He says that unlike other minority groups, LGBTQ+ people often don’t grow up in a home where their parents are part of the same minority group. “I would come home from school and it still wasn’t ok to be gay at home,” he recalls. “And so what did I do? It was easier to change myself.”
When I ask where he found solace from the bullying, Keates tells me that he turned to the theatre. “People talk about why theatre is full of so many queer people and I’m like, because we use it as a survival mechanism when we’re growing up.” He believes that what motivates some queer people to go into the performing arts isn’t necessarily born out of an initial love of theatre. “It’s that we love not having to be ourselves for a few hours,” he argues.
Having trained at Brockenhurst College (Beacon College for Performing Arts), Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts and Guildford School of Acting, Keates has gone on to direct and produce a plethora of shows in the West End and further afield. He co-ran the Landor Theatre for three years, serving as Producer, Casting Director, and Director for various productions, before leaving in 2012 to set up his own theatre company, Arion Productions. In 2017, Keates started his own podcast, The Show People Podcast, which he continues to host today.
Alongside an impressive theatre career, his accolades are just as noteworthy. His production of The Hired Man won Best Musical Production in the OffWestEnd.com Awards in 2012, in addition to his production of A Winter’s Tale won Best New Musical the following year. Keates’ passion for championing those from a social and ethnic minorities in the performing arts, as well as raising awareness of HIV stigma, was recognised by the Vice Chancellor of Surrey University awarding him the Young Achiever of the Year Award in 2018.
Yet despite the highs of his career, theatre alone wasn’t enough of a coping mechanism for Keates. Having turned to drugs and alcohol, his addictions started to become out of control. “I felt like I was gasping, absolutely gasping,” he recalls of the moment he realised what he was doing to himself. “I was just poisoning myself every weekend. I was using other people, manipulating them to give me what I wanted, whether that be alcohol, drugs, or sex.”
After waking up from the sexual assault, coupled with being confronted with spiralling addictions, Keates was faced with the stark reality that something needed to change. He credits his friends for helping him onto the road to sobriety and recovery. “Some extraordinary LGBTQ+ people,” he says of those who helped him. “And when I started to wonder how I could be helpful to my community, rather than serving all of my wants, magical things started to happen.”
As well as reflecting on his own trauma and addictions, Keates also found himself thinking about the LGBTQ+ community as a whole. Or perhaps, he began thinking about the lack of community. “We’re all looking for how we’re different from one another, rather than our similarities,” he explains of the LGBTQ+ community. “You’re different to me, and you’re this person, and you’re this generation, and you’re fat and you’re this, you’re that. That’s all we’re doing right now.”
It’s this notion of disconnect within the queer community that made him think of how he could bring queer people together. “I believe that the best thing for our community is to bring us together in a room where we can fail together, where we can grow together, where we can play together, where we can have our shared experiences, and we can tolerate our differences.”
Looking inwards, Keates realised that the shows he enjoyed directing and producing the most were the ones where he was telling authentic queer stories. “I didn’t care where they’d go, and I didn’t care about the size of the theatre,” he says of making these shows. “All I cared about is that we were finding the truth to these queer stories with queer artists.” It was time to stop chasing his West End dream, and focus on what made him happy.
So how did he go about setting said room that would bring queer people together, I ask him. It began with the name: Queer Theatre. Yet surely, Keates thought to himself, that name would have already been taken. A search on the Companies House website, however, would leave him pleasantly surprised. “I was like, that name has got to be taken, right?” he tells me. “Oh, no, it wasn’t! Queer Theatre Ltd. was entirely available.”
Having changed the name of his existing theatre company, Arion Productions, to Queer Theatre, Keates says that he’s driven by a desire to tell more LGBTQ+ stories, as well as nurturing queer talent. “I’m committed to running an LGBTQ+ production company that isn’t just about putting on shows,” says Keates. “But building a community in queer spaces with queer people exploring all forms of the performing arts, whether that be comedy, whether that be theatre, or creating networking events.”
Having launched only a few months ago, Queer Theatre appears to be thriving. The theatre company is currently developing plays and musicals, whilst also putting on one night only events, classes and workshops for both established and emerging LGBTQ+ talent. Queer Theatre’s social media engagement has shot up since the venture was announced, demonstrating the appetite for a queer-specific theatre company.
“You should ask me about our patrons,” Keates says partway through our interview, such is his unresting dedication to directing, he even attempts to direct the interview. “Stephen Fry,” he beams, when I ask. Actress Annette Badland and dramatist Martin Sherman have also joined the company as patrons.
Directing a theatre company isn’t just about being creative, though. I ask Keates about the financial reality of putting on shows during a trying time for the performing arts, an industry which has faced significant funding cuts. “Yeah, it’s really hard,” he replies. “I hope that in time the industry will start to value culture again, and this government will value culture again. But right now, financially, it’s extremely difficult, and so I think we’re all just doing the very best that I can.”
For Keates, his mindset has shifted away from putting on huge productions; he remains committed to telling stories for and about the LGBTQ+ community. “If I spent the rest of my career putting on shows in 50 to 100 seat theatres, telling great stories, then I’ve realised that’s enough for me.”
With Queer Theatre finding its place in the theatre landscape, I turn back to Keates’ sobriety. He stands amongst many others in the queer community, and beyond, who have shared their journey to sobriety publicly on social media. What encouraged him to share his own story, I ask. “A life of Grindr, a life of drugs, a life of alcohol, a life of having nights out, nearly killed me,” he replies, adding he is motivated by helping others who might be going through something similar. “I hope other people seek out help if my story’s similar to them.”
Keates is equally conscious of the example he wants to set for the next generation of queer people. “The truth of the matter is that not all LGBTQ+ people like to go out partying at the weekend,” he argues. “We should be careful of saying: You must go to the gym every day, you must live on protein shakes, you have to look a certain way, or have this approach to sex and this approach to drugs, otherwise, you know, you’re not living the queer dream.”
He adds, “I think it’s important that we really check in with the example that we’re setting to the younger generation.”
Andrew Keates is an award-winning theatre director and producer, and founder of Queer Theatre. Photography by Bobby Georgiev.
